National carmaker Proton will sponsor the Norwich City of the First Division in the next English football season and offer discounts in a bid to boost sales, a report said today.

With some 35,000 club supporters, the sponsorship will give Proton cars the brand awareness and recognition they lack in Britain, Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Bhd. (Proton) chief executive Mahaleel Ariff told The Star newspaper.

"What better way to do this than through football as we are the biggest investor in Norfolk," Mahaleel was quoted as saying.

To spur sales, a Proton spokesman said club members would be given a discount if they purchased Proton cars.

Proton in 1997 bought an 80 percent stake in Britain's Lotus Engineering Ltd to boost its technological capabilities.

Seven-figure deal

The seven-figure deal, which is the biggest sponsorship in the club's history, was signed by Mahaleel and club chairman Roger Munby in Norwich yesterday, the newspaper said.

Under the pact, the club, popularly known as 'The Canaries', will carry the Proton logo o­n its traditional yellow and green colors while the away kit in racing green will bear the brand of Proton's British unit, the Lotus Group.

"We are determined to play a major role in helping the Proton brand throughout Britain," said the club's sales and marketing director Andrew Cullen.

Norwich finished the current season in eighth position, just missing the play-off for a place in the English Premier League.

The sponsorship programme is part of Proton's efforts to expand exports ahead of the opening of the Malaysian car market in 2005 under the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Free Trade Area (Afta).

Britain is Proton's single largest export market but sales overseas have been poor so far as it strives to establish its presence alongside other bigger, more established carmakers.

Cut production costs

Proton has jointly with Lotus developed its own Campro engine to cut production costs by 20 percent.

It has recently ventured into China to sell commercial vehicles and is bidding for a licence to sell passenger cars there. It has a factory in Iran and plans to set up a plant in North Africa and possible South America.

Proton currently holds some 60 percent of the Malaysian market due to high tariffs o­n imported cars.

This protection will largely disappear under Afta where tariffs fall to below five percent in January but Malaysia has obtained a reprieve for its auto industry until 2005 o­n the levies.